Makeover tips and advice for a beginner wanted!

[Syco Stang]

Re: Makeover tips and advice for a beginner wanted!

as far as the black moldings go, look at a product called black wow, they sell it at ADS, it make those black moldings look like new, an amazing product, and a little goes a long way

I wound up painting all of the mouldings and trim with satin black trim paint. It looks great.
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[ajb39oh]

Re: Makeover tips and advice for a beginner wanted!

does black wow work as good as the youtube video? I would like to have something to protect all my black plastic trim

[MrCLRider]

Re: Makeover tips and advice for a beginner wanted!

as far as the black moldings go, look at a product called black wow, they sell it at ADS, it make those black moldings look like new, an amazing product, and a little goes a long way

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Makeover tips and advice for a beginner wanted!

looks great

[Syco Stang]

Re: Makeover tips and advice for a beginner wanted!

It's been a while since I updated, so here is a link to the most recent pics of the car.

http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?p=240167#post240167

[Derrick]

Re: Makeover tips and advice for a beginner wanted!

Well PlastX is pretty easy to use. Most of the time i will just use a microfiber rag for the application but i can see your headlights need some help so you might need to go with a terry cloth. If you have a machine like a DA or Rotary i would go with one of those. Well I'm not sure if its recommended with a rotary but that is still how i apply it and get amazing results and fast. If you will be doing it by hand than you can think of it kind of like scratchX. Use it on about half of the headlight to break it down into 2 smaller sections or you can go even smaller than that if you wish. Then using a terry for a little extra bite you want to use a little pressure ( about 10 lbs ) and work the product back and forth. For more sever cases you will want to work it alot like ScratchX really working it alot and sometimes multiple applications. It can also be compared to paint correction because some headlights are just more polishable than others. While one really bad case you may be able to get it back with one application and no problems while another set of headlights may be even less oxidized than the other ones but they will take about 3 applications. It just depends on how bad they are and how polishable they are. hopefully this helps and if you got any more ? just ask away

[Syco Stang]

Re: Makeover tips and advice for a beginner wanted!

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?
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[Syco Stang]

Re: Makeover tips and advice for a beginner wanted!

Can you guys please give me a little more in depth explanation on the PlastX? I bought some, started to do the detailing on the car today.
I washed it very nicely, cleaned everything up as best as I could. It still has some **** stuck to the paint below the beltline mouldings, I just couldnt get it off. Some of it came off with the cleaner wax and very very hard scrubbing. Not sure what it is, could be very caked on mud or maybe sap but it looks like it had splashed on at some point from the front wheels.
Anyway, after washing it I went to town with the claybar and it did an alright job. After that I used the carnuba cleaner and that helped a lot more. I finished the whole car up to that point, and started on the hood with the Nu Finish polish. That made a little difference as well, but I am nowhere near done and will finish the polish tomorrow followed by the TechWax 2.0. I now see a lot more scratches and swirls in the paint, I managed to remove a lot of build up and oxidization which seems to bring out the imperfections. I am assuming the scratches and swirls are mostly from those drive through car washes...... There are a few deeper scratches and chips and those will have to be touched up, hopefully they can somewhat blend in.

Back to the ScratchX though, any and all tips would be appreciated. I wish I had a good camera on hand to update you folks with pictures! It really looks a lot better than when I started with it.
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[Syco Stang]

Re: Makeover tips and advice for a beginner wanted!

you should print out the prices ay autodetailingsolustions.com and see if they will match those. If i remember right they are a little cheaper than ordering straight from megs. Also i noticed that you have Nu Finish Polish, is that the once a year car polish that they sell? If so how is that? i am always sceptical to buy prducts that make outragouse claims like that i am just curious to how it purforms as a polish. They also said it offers protection so what is it? Does it work more like a polish or wax? Ok well just curious to hear about what you think

Well, I am by no means an expert on detailing products but I was very impressed by it. It's the "Once a year car polish" in the big orange bottle. I used it on my very faded red 92 GTI and it worked wonders, albeit with some assistance from Mother's ClayBar. The pics ****, but here's a couple of before and after:






The clay bar treatment really brought the colour back, but the Nu Finish really made the colour pop. It's nowhere near perfect, but now it is very presentable and has a pretty nice shine all around with the exception of the drivers door (which I used as a test bed for something else, it will be changed). I think it's a good product, and that's why I left it in there in my list rather than getting something I haven't used yet......
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[Derrick]

Re: Makeover tips and advice for a beginner wanted!

you should print out the prices at autodetailingsolustions.com and see if they will match those. If i remember right they are a little cheaper than ordering straight from megs. Also i noticed that you have Nu Finish Polish, is that the once a year car polish that they sell? If so how is that? i am always sceptical to buy products that make outrageous claims like that i am just curious to how it performs as a polish. They also said it offers protection so what is it? Does it work more like a polish or wax? Ok well just curious to hear about what you think

[Syco Stang]

Re: Makeover tips and advice for a beginner wanted!

Megs HotRims Mag and Aluminum Polish should work for the bare aluminum and you can paint the trim and just tape them off with a light painters tape before you use the polishes and waxes. If you work the polish and wax first just make sure to properly clean the trim before painting which you will want to do anyways before you paint it. You can clay it and clean with some APC or just use a high grit sand paper light 3000grit before painting. Either would remove all waxes or contaminants that would keep the paint from adhering to the trim

I went by the local parts store (Canadian Tire), and everything was about 150% the price that's advertised on Meguiar's site. They said if I printed the prices all out that they'd match the prices, I just cant justify spending $27.99 for wax when it's priced here for $17.99.

I came up with this list of things to buy, the things I need most are marked with an asterisk:
1) WASHING
MEGUIARS NXT CAR WASH $4.99*
MEGUIARS MICROFIBER WASH MITT $4.99*
MEGUIARS PREMIUM NATURAL CHAMOIS $14.99*
ENGINE BAY:
MEGUIARS SUPER DEGREASER $14.40
CONVERTIBLE TOP:
RAGGTOP CLEANER $15.99*
INTERIOR:
MEGUIARS QUIK OUT CARPET STAIN REMOVER $4.99*

2) CLEANING / SURFACE PREP
CLAY BAR HAVE IT
INTERIOR:

HEADLIGHTS:
PLASTX CLEAR PLASTIC CLEAN AND POLISH $5.49*

3) POLISHING
NU FINISH POLISH HAVE IT
WHEELS/ENGINE BAY:
MEGUIARS HOTRIMS ALUMINUM POLISH $6.99*

4) PROTECTING
MEGUIARS NXT GENERATION TECHWAX 2.0 $17.39*
ENGINE BAY:
MEGUIARS HYPER DRESSING $39.39
CONVERTIBLE TOP:
RAGGTOP VYNIL DRESSING/PROTECTANT $20.99
INTERIOR:
MEGUIARS GOLD CLASS VYNIL/RUBBER PROTECTANT $5.49*

5) MAINTAINING
MEGUIARS INSTANT DETAILER $9.42

Love the chrome ponies Trust me on the PlastX and headlights - you've got nothing to lose

Thanks! I knew the Chrome Ponies would make a huge difference, now it needs to be lowered and fully detailed I hope the headlights really come out nice.
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[InfiniteDetail]

Re: Makeover tips and advice for a beginner wanted!

Love the chrome ponies Trust me on the PlastX and headlights - you've got nothing to lose

[Derrick]

Re: Makeover tips and advice for a beginner wanted!

Whoops....
Also, I almost forgot to ask. For the trim pieces and beltline mouldings on the car, since I plan to repaint them all satin black would you suggest I paint them before going to town with all the cleaning/polishing/waxing supplies? I'm just afraid that if they are coated in wax, that the paint wont stick. Or that I'll paint them, and the products will leave a white haze or discolouration/different glossiness on the painted parts (since most satin trim pieces are not removable or hard to remove). Input would be much appreciated.
SS

Megs HotRims Mag and Aluminum Polish should work for the bare aluminum and you can paint the trim and just tape them off with a light painters tape before you use the polishes and waxes. If you work the polish and wax first just make sure to properly clean the trim before painting which you will want to do anyways before you paint it. You can clay it and clean with some APC or just use a high grit sand paper light 3000grit before painting. Either would remove all waxes or contaminants that would keep the paint from adhering to the trim

[Syco Stang]

Re: Makeover tips and advice for a beginner wanted!

Couple of updated pics..... my chrome wheels were drop shipped at the sellers house, and he was kind enough to put them on. What a difference, but those damn headlights really ruin the look!!!! I should get her by Monday, I'm getting excited and a little nervous.






Anyone have any ideas on the questions I've asked above??? Just wanted to get a final idea before I get everything, dont want to make multiple purchases.... especially online! Let me know guys, thanks a bunch

[Syco Stang]

Re: Makeover tips and advice for a beginner wanted!

Whoops....
Also, I almost forgot to ask. For the trim pieces and beltline mouldings on the car, since I plan to repaint them all satin black would you suggest I paint them before going to town with all the cleaning/polishing/waxing supplies? I'm just afraid that if they are coated in wax, that the paint wont stick. Or that I'll paint them, and the products will leave a white haze or discolouration/different glossiness on the painted parts (since most satin trim pieces are not removable or hard to remove). Input would be much appreciated.
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